Author Topic: 1SO Rebuilds His Top 100 of All Time  (Read 235162 times)

1SO

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Re: 1SO Rebuilds His Top 100 of All Time - Meet Me In St. Louis
« Reply #90 on: September 12, 2010, 12:26:39 AM »
Marathon Update



Meet Me in St. Louis
"Skip to My Lou, my darling."

Meet Me in St. Louis is a bit of an oddball for me.  I watch a lot of musicals.  My wife loves Bing Crosby and Christmas films, and stories that take place at the turn of the century.  I'm generally very forgiving of their faults, and can enjoy them simply for the charisma of the performers.  Films like Holiday Inn, Swing Time and Yankee Doodle Dandy are favored around the household.  They're not even of the quality of Singing in the Rain or Mary Poppins, but they can brighten your day on a Sunday afternoon.

Meet Me in St. Louis starts like one of those.  It's bright and cheery, there's love about to bloom in a couple of directions and the large family dynamic is extremely engaging, much like how people cheered for the clan in Little Miss Sunshine.  I really liked the opening section, and its closing number, "The Trolley Song" is one of the most transporting moments I've seen in this marathon.  I feel comfortable saying it's my favorite single scene I've watched this year since Toy Story 3.

I'm sure flieger is skipping down to where I get all negative, but I want to go on about the greatness of "The Trolley Song", which I thought I could never again enjoy after SNL's Sweeney Sisters butchered it repeatedly.  It's an amazing scene where at first everyone on the trolley but Garland is singing.  The man she longs for didn't make it onboard and she's treated as if invisible and constantly in the way.  Then she sees him running to get on board and her body fills with life as she takes over the song and everyone else becomes window dressing.  Their large hats frame her and the passengers hang on her every note.  She fills this bubblegum ditty with meaning.  Makes it important.  As important as love itself.  And it ends with an awkward glance when she realizes the man she longs for is taking a seat right next to her.  You hear about a song being someone's inner thoughts, and she realizes he can hear her.  It's a great slide back to reality.




Then the film starts to go wrong.  Starting with the above image and continuing for the next 5-7 minutes.  Two little girls joining other tykes in a bonfire and scaring neighbors with flour.  It's like I entered a different film.  The tone was way off, and the main story that I was so invested in got dumped for an overlong sequence whose purpose made little sense.  I ask you flieger, why not start when the littlest one is injured?  What's so important about the rest, and why is so much time wasted on it.  My favorite part of the Halloween section - sadly the only part of it I like at all - is the way the father brings the family back together at the very end.  It's actually quite beautiful, both in the way it adds dimension to the father and how the character entrances are directed.  Through some really smart visuals, you feel the family unit connecting once again.

Now that the door is open for questions, the Christmas section also becomes wobbly.  I loved the Grandpa here, and there's a magical moment involving dancing and a Christmas tree, but the conflict felt rushed, more of a written crisis than something I had time to live in.  I never get to care about John.  Why is this so hurried when the opening was relaxed enough to include the little girl crashing the party for a big song and dance routine?  And why did it get so serious during Christmas?  I wasn't expecting such a melodramatic approach taken to plots that were more romantic comedy.  This is Meet Me in St. Louis, not All That Heaven Allows.  The resolution is similar to what happens in Mary Poppins, but it actually carries more weight in the less dramatic Disney film.

I would argue that Meet Me in St. Louis is a film that could be improved with a remake.  I see special magic all over, but in it's current state it's completely wrong.


Compared to my Top 100 of the 00's...
Meet Me In St. Louis wouldn't make my Top 100, but there is potential greatness in it.

Next Up:
Last Year in Marienbad
Les Diaboliques
The Red Shoes

sdedalus

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Re: 1SO Rebuilds His Top 100 of All Time
« Reply #91 on: September 12, 2010, 01:04:50 AM »
Yeah, it's emotionally complex.
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flieger

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Re: 1SO Rebuilds His Top 100 of All Time
« Reply #92 on: September 12, 2010, 01:09:01 AM »
Oh boy, now I actually have to think about my favourite film. No fair.

Why is there a Halloween sequence in the film, or more precisely, why is there that sort of Halloween sequence in the film? Well first of all, it's in the book. Although Agnes does the confronting in the book, Margaret O'Brien as Tootie will not be denied. She's a force of nature! (and a much better actor/screen presence than Joan Carroll.)
Of course, me being me, I find the Halloween sequence one of the best of the film, probably second only to The Trolley Song. Stylistically it is off from the tone of the rest of the film (but  regardless, Minnelli has some serious chops in being able to do it). Anyways, I always thought of the Halloween sequence as a sort-of fever dream of Tootie and the crazed, off-the-leash mass-consciousness of the kids in this one-day-of-the-year festival. These sorts of festivals - the reversal of the established order and all that - tend to do that, and with Tootie's already fertile imagination it just goes bonkers.
Thematically, I think it highlights the dark strain that is prevalent throughout the film. Tootie going on about the diseases of her toys, the saddest Christmas song ever followed by the smashing of the snowmen. Even the rosy glow and nostalgia (but never sentimentality!) of turn-of-the-century St. Louis and the travails of the Smith family has this hard edge of, I dunno, a conscious exercise in escape from the pressures of 1944. Things were like this, sure, but there is a dark irony and sadness in the final scene of the family at the world's fair, where the wondrousness of tomorrow and the future beckons, but sh*t, in 1944 there are boys overseas getting slaughtered by the thousands.

Bondo

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Re: 1SO Rebuilds His Top 100 of All Time - The Son
« Reply #93 on: September 12, 2010, 01:12:18 AM »
I thought of the similar film In The Bedroom, which is good, but telling it with this technique yields amazing results.

Having now seen The Son I do see elements of that comparison, though considering that film was one of my top ten "films people like that I absolutely despise" of the 00s it was good that it was only a few elements.

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Re: 1SO Rebuilds His Top 100 of All Time - Unfaithfully Yours
« Reply #94 on: September 12, 2010, 02:56:54 AM »
Unfaithfully Yours

It's the final section, however, that completely threw me for a loop.  Alfred attempts to pull off his perfect crime, and everything goes the way of a classic Luch sketch.  Using very long takes at times, Sturges and Rex Harrison put on a virtuoso comedic display where the gags keep piling up on top of each other.  The stuffy air of the movie and the lead character give way to hilarious slapstick, and while I felt ashamed for not enjoying the high-minded stuff as much, I was too busy laughing to care.  Before the required "it was all a misunderstanding" ending, Unfaithfully Yours earns high marks for paying off in the last twenty minutes, what I didn't realize the first eighty was building towards.

Compared to my Top 100 of the 00's...
Unfaithfully Yours would be my #94 of the 00's.

Glad you liked it. It always seems to just miss my top 100 but I think it's one of my all-time favorite comedies.

1SO

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Re: 1SO Rebuilds His Top 100 of All Time - Diabolique
« Reply #95 on: September 21, 2010, 07:35:03 PM »
Marathon Update



Diabolique

There's a great story about how filmmaker Henri-Georges Clouzot and Alfred Hitchcock were competing for the screenplay rights to the novel that inspired Diabolique.  Clouzot beat the master of suspense to the punch by just a few hours and created a film that is often compared favorably to the best of Hitchcock.  There's a constant slowly building suspense, leading to one of the most copied shock surprises in all of cinema. 

The above paragraph contains all my problems with Diabolique.  You see, if you're gonna compare yourself to Hitchcock you better make a film worthy of that comparison.  I know Clouzot is an excellent filmmaker because I'd seen his intensely gripping The Wages of Fear.  That's a great film.  This one is merely okay, more interesting for its three central performances than its tension and twists.  Twists that have lost pretty much all their impact because they've been used in other films. 

The film hinges one old chestnut of a surprise, right up there with the twin nobody knew existed.  I've seen that one work as recently as one of my favorite films from the last decade. (Hint: Nolan.)  And I've seen classic trendsetters like Double Indemnity be co-opted for more modern films like Body Heat while losing none of their impact.  I figured out pretty early on where this one was really headed and the finale was lacking the great cinematic touch that Hitchcock always delivered.

What I really liked were all three leads, who mostly bucked the stereotype of their parts.  Simone Signoret wasn't icy so much as forceful, aggressive in a very casual manner.  Véra Clouzot nicely underplays the easily frightened wife and Paul Meurisse is one of the most original abusive husbands I've ever seen.  Slight of build, not especially handsome, he runs his school and his personal life with a sense of entitlement.  His wife and mistress are friends, and he takes pride in not keeping secrets from them or acting deceptive.  The performance reminds me of Mel Gibson's recent phone calls minus all the testosterone-fueled rage.

Compared to my Top 100 of the 00's...
Diabolique would probably make my Top 100 back in the 50's.


Next Up:
A Man For All Seasons
Last Year in Marienbad
The Red Shoes
Woman in the Dunes (once I figure out how to get hold of a copy)

Bill Thompson

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Re: 1SO Rebuilds His Top 100 of All Time
« Reply #96 on: September 21, 2010, 10:13:25 PM »
Diabolique is awesome, that's all I have to say about it.

zarodinu

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Re: 1SO Rebuilds His Top 100 of All Time
« Reply #97 on: September 21, 2010, 11:23:37 PM »
Diabolique is not as good as Wages of Fear, but that's because Wages is one of the best films ever made.  I actually thought it was better than all but the absolute top Hitchcock films, but I do think Hitchcock is slightly overrated.  I for one didn't see the twist coming at all.  Watch The Raven, its Clouzot's third must watch film.  Good luck finding Woman in the Dunes.
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chardy999

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Re: 1SO Rebuilds His Top 100 of All Time
« Reply #98 on: September 22, 2010, 05:40:47 AM »
Diabolique is not as good as Wages of Fear, but that's because Wages is one of the best films ever made.  I actually thought it was better than all but the absolute top Hitchcock films, but I do think Hitchcock is slightly overrated.  I for one didn't see the twist coming at all.  Watch The Raven, its Clouzot's third must watch film.  Good luck finding Woman in the Dunes.

The Raven just edges Wages of Fear for me, mainly due to my personal disdain for unnecessary (non-funny) stupidity in a film.
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1SO

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Re: 1SO Rebuilds His Top 100 of All Time - Last Year at Marienbad
« Reply #99 on: September 24, 2010, 10:11:55 AM »
Marathon Update



Last Year at Marienbad
Resnais: Hiroshima mon amour was my gateway, I'd I'd suggest starting there.  It's less of a trip than Marienbad.
I would have loved to sit in on the production meeting of this movie. "So, Mr. Resnais, what is this movie about that you want us to produce?" ... long silence... "Well, it's kind of abstract...". Without this movie there would have never been something like "Mulholland Dr."...
Experiencing Last Year at Marienbad - and this is a film you don't simply watch, but experience - I felt I was in the grip of the greatest "puzzle movie" ever made.  Not my personal favorite.  I would rank this below Barton Fink, Tetsuo and the Lynch trilogy of Eraserhead, Mulholland Dr. and Inland Empire, but there's virtuoso, first-rate mastery on display in every inch of every frame of this film.  Much has been said about the cinematography by Sacha Vierny, yet not enough about the transitions between different points on the timeline and the hypnotic editing by Jasmine Chasney & Henri Colpi.

Good the first time, Great the second time, and Good the third time.

However, that's only looking at the uniqueness of the board and not the actual gameplay.  Mousetrap was by far my favorite board game to look at, but it was nowhere near as fun as it looked.  The story here (what I could grasp of it) isn't that interesting, not when compared to my favorite puzzle films, not when compared to Hiroshima, Mon Amour.  I'll probably catch more on return viewings, but I don't see the relationship at its core gaining in emotional power, just more appreciation for Alain Resnais board game trickery.

p.s. Bondo, you should have given the film a more fair shake, at least been appreciative of its look and mood.

Compared to my Top 100 of the 00's...
I would have to watch this more and get into some lengthy discussions before I could possibly answer this question.

Next Up:
A Man For All Seasons
Papillion
The Red Shoes
Woman in the Dunes
« Last Edit: September 20, 2021, 11:13:05 PM by 1SO »

 

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